I Won't Remember Anything Else
by MyDamnHead
Summary: You can look at one person for the first time, and in a second you know that's it for you. You found them. What if this happens while you're walking down the aisle to get married and it's not the person waiting at the end? Imagine Me and You AU - Bechloe
1. Chapter 1

Beca was perched on the end of her too-white, too-plushy hotel bed, staring at herself in the mirror. It was a scorching September morning in LA. A warm push of air made it's way through her open windows, helping to bring down her frenzied thoughts to a quieter simmer. She glanced at digital alarm clock on the bedside table, then down at her own iPhone to double check the time.

Two minuets.

A pang of something ran through her chest. She had two minuets to put herself on a socially required level of excitement. Not that Beca wasn't excited, she honestly really was. She just wasn't one of those girls to jump wildly up and down and scream in such a high pitch that only dogs could hear. Her friends were though.

One minuet now.

Beca ran into the bathroom to quickly brush her teeth and splash water on her face in an attempted to ground her in her reality. It was just a normal day. A normal day plus a church. A church and a clean, kind of too puffy white dress. A white dress and an aisle and an alter and a-

The rapping a the door draws Beca from her spiralling train of thoughts.

She jogs over to the door and takes a moment to breathe in, focus, and brace for impact.

She opens the door, and as if on cue, the squealing starts. She gets hugged-tackled by the two tall, jumpy bodies.

"You know it's me getting married today, right guys?" Beca chuckles through a sizeable grin, hugging the two girls back.

"Oh I know!" voices Emily, who is still squeezing Beca and Stacie with everything she has, "I'm just so excited for you!".

"Yeah, you and lover boy have been together for what, almost five- six, years? It's about damn time." Stacie adds on. "We can be excited too."

"I think everyone is excited" A voice adds from the back.

Beca peeked around the two taller women still standing in the doorway to see her step mom, Sheila and her younger half sister Harper. She invites them in with a slightly awkward hug for Sheila, then picking up and spinning around her flower girl. "Jeez, H, you're almost as tall as me now."

"Like that's a hard accomplishment" Stacie snorted from the desk chair she's dropped herself in, spreading out makeup on the table.

"Hey! Isn't there some rule that you have to be nice to the bride on her wedding day?" Beca questions, putting down Harper.

"I think she's right, Stace" Emily chimes from across the room where Beca's dress is hanging up, not breaking her eye contact with it while she looks it up and down, admiring it.

"It's okay Beca," Harper starts "Ms. Mayer says I'm very tall for my age anyways. The tallest 3rd grader she's ever had!" And Beca can't help but believe that's true. The height gene was definitely not one that she and her sister shared.

"Alright girls, I thinks it time to get ready! We have to make sure Beca's at the church by one!"

…

Chloe studied the side of her van. Her eyes traced over the swirly navy and yellow lettering that spelled out "Life is a Flower". She had always wondered if she had made the right decision for the name of her shop. Was it too long? Too wordy? Too overt? Would people get the reference? One of her best friends, Aubrey, of course, adored the the reference. Her other best friend, and sometimes highly incompetent employee, Amy, thought it was a stupid idea because "The only people who still listen to Ace Of Base are dead". Chloe had to point out the holes in her logic on that one. Amy, of course, had insisted that her point still stood. And maybe she was right about the Ace of Base thing, (people not getting the reference, not Amy's 'dead' theory) but she couldn't help but admire the name. Life was like a flower. Beautiful, delicate, unexpected, and cliche. Something she quickly learned from the obscene amount of weddings she had done flowers for in the past four year.

An "Oy! Chloe!" Rang out from behind her, so loud and abrupt, it jolted Chloe back to her senses, causing her to almost drop the final centrepiece she was loading in her van.

"What, Amy?"

"Do you think you're going to be back to the shop by 5?"

"I don't know, why?"

"Well ya see, I have a date tonight and I was hoping you'd be back earlier enough to go home and get ready, because this time the guy is actually hot and isn't a convicted criminal so I'm going to need at least three to five hours to get ready and-"

"Amy!"

"Oh don't worry Chloe, next time you have a date I'll close up shop for you."

"Ha. Very funny." She deadpanned.

"Hey, we'll find you a girl soon. Between now and the time since the last girl you dated, it's got to be a statistical fact that you have to met someone anytime now, or like, the world will implode."

"Wouldn't that be nice."

…

Chloe arrived to the church ground about a half an hour before the wedding is supposed to start. When she was there the day before to set up the flowers in the chapel, she couldn't help but notice what a chruchy-church this was. It was like the Notre Dame in the middle of downtown Los Angeles. The fact that she was indeed, still in L.A was only reaffirmed by the tall, reflective office building next to which said _Superior Court_ in the upper lefthand corner.

She needed to find someone to point her in the direction of the courtyard where the reception was being held to set up the centrepieces. These centrepieces where probably some of the most cliche ones she had done to date. Stout glass bowls with wide mouths that compacted in a mix of red roses and violets so not a single flower petal more could fit in.

She approached two men, both in dark grey, fitted three piece suits, and matching maroon ties and crisp white shirts. One had light brown bushy hair and a child like expression on his face, which was scanning the people gathering in front of the church. The other had his chocolate brown hair pushed back, big, warm brown eyes, and a kind smile.

"Excuse me? Could one of you point me to the direction of the courtyard?"

"Of course," The one with the kind smiled replied "But can I ask why? I mean, most wedding crashers wait until the reception starts to crash it."

"Oh, I'm uh, Chloe, the florist, and I'm here to set up the centrepieces."

"It's fine, I'm just messing with you Chloe. I'm Jesse, and this is Benji"

The other man gave a quick wave and a smile, then went back on his toes to scan the crowd.

Then it clicked for Chloe who she was talking to.

"Oh so you're Jesse, the groom, right?"

"The one and only, I hope." He said with a small chuckle, then turned to Benji. "The flowers in the chapel look amazing by the way, don't they, Benji?"

"Yeah, yeah, great" He said, clearly still concentrated on looking for someone.

"Benji, your shoes are on fire."

"Yeah, really excellent." he droned.

Jesse then grabbed his arm and laughed, "Buddy, you're not going to get to see Emily until the wedding starts, calm down a bit okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, okay. You're right."

"Always am," He said with a smile, then Jesse turned his attention back to Chloe. "Anyways, yeah, Beca was actually pretty excited about the flowers, she really liked my roses and violets idea, and it's not the kind of thing she get's excited over, like, ever so you clearly did a pretty spot on job."

"Well thank you, I-"

"Jesse! Jesse!" a small voice sounded, cutting off Chloe.

"Hey! How's my favourite girl today?" Jesse asked the child, ruffling her hair as she hugged his hip. She couldn't be more than eight or nine years old, Chloe guessed.

"I'm great, but, before you go marry my sister, I do have a question." she chided, holding out the 'o' in 'do'.

"Alright, shoot."

"What happens when an unstoppable force meets and immovable object?"

Jesse stood there, jaw opened, for a moment in silent contemplation before he spoke; "I have no damn idea, H."

Before anyone could say anything else, Chloe chimed in, "Well, actually it's kind of a trick question. If you have a unstoppable force, that means there's nothing in the entire world that exist that can't be moved- and vice vera."

Everyone was quiet for a moment before H broke the silence. "I like you. And you red hair. will you sit with me?"


	2. Chapter 2

Beca watched her friends round the corner she was standing behind, and elegantly proceed down the aisle in flowing maroon gowns. Each was arm in arm with one of Jesse's friends, who were in well fitted grey suits and slim ties matching to the dresses.

There was this quiet tick at the back of her mind, and she wasn't quiet sure what it was telling her but something felt off. Her mind wasn't racing like a horse at the Kentucky Derby like earlier in the morning. Now, it was though all her thoughts seemed to move along and a snail's pace, hanging in her head like the smoke from a recently blown out birthday candle.

Her father walked up to her and she tucked his arm into his.

"Ready?" He asked.

"I guess so."

He just quirked an eyebrow at her response.

"I mean, yes. Totally. I can do this. I'll be fine. We'll be great." She said at a whisper, and all in one breath. It was more to herself then her dad. As soon as the the last syllable was out of her mouth the music change and she could hear a rustling from the around the corner of people rising to their feet.

"Well then, let's go." Her dad offered her.

And they were off.

Beca couldn't help but feel a pressure on her chest as she began her descent. It was a tremendously slow walk to the end of the aisle. The beaming faces of people she cared about, people she was kind of knew, and total strangers. It was all taking a toll. She decided ahead of time it would be her best bet to keep her head high and straight and just look ahead at Jesse. But in the moment, her head was still, like she planned, but she couldn't help her eyes from moving. Scanning the pews, looking for something else to look at.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw an auburn lightning flash. She saw a women, not much older then herself slide out of her spot at the very far end of a pew and move to the walkway in-between the seating and the far wall. The women was dressed fairly plain for a formal event, in faded almost to white skinny jeans with a hole just below one knee, and a baby blue and white pinstripe button-down blouse, and her hair tied back, but she still had a natural elegance to her. The redheaded women turned to head towards the exit, but as she did Beca's eyes caught hers. She could feel in that second her chest tighten like elastic while all the air in the world escaped from her lungs, and everything just kind of stopped wholly and completely for a millisecond. The millisecond felt like thirty seconds to Beca. She caught herself looking. She jolted her head back towards the alter and shaded her eyes down more at the floor than anything else. Something in her mind told her to look forward but her eyes instinctively took her back for a second to glance where the redheaded women was a moment before, but she could only see her leaving.

Before she even realized it she was at the base step of the alter. She brought her eyes up to find Jesse's watery, kind ones looking down at her. She took a breath. Took a look at her father who gave her arm a light squeeze, and stepped up onto the alter, facing Jesse.

…

The music was very loud. Probably loud enough to be breaking some sound pollution by-law since they were outside, Chloe thought.

Because she spent time sitting with the young girl who went by 'H', Chloe had gotten a late start setting up the centrepieces at all the tables. And yeah, maybe she had spent a minute or two watching the wedding at the back of the church. Maybe she kept watching even after she knew that she'd be running behind, but there was something about the bride she found so captivating. She had watched the small body carry an amalgamation of emotions on her walk down the aisle. Her walk seemed pensive and her eyes seemed bashful and worried.

But something changed when they locked eyes for that quick moment. Chloe couldn't quite put her finger on it, but the best way she could describe the bride's change in demeanour was almost panicky and sparkling, but even that couldn't describe the change.

Chloe left when the minister started to speak.

Once the sky was turning brilliant shades of orange and pink, reception was in was in full swing (or as Chloe liked to call it, "everyone's on drink three by now" mode), she went to see if the highly anal retentive wedding planner who hired her would set her free to go home so she could make it to watch _Scandal_ in her pyjamas _._ Instead, who she found was a small women in a clean white dress on her hands and knees sifting through the grass in the garden, muttering expletives to herself, off to the side of the reception area.

The women's dress was strapless. It tightly hugged her bust, and it's back was open with a elegant ties that zigzagged far down her back. Chloe noticed the ridges of her spin, and how her arm muscles were tensed as she help herself up with her nose just a foot from ground.

"You know, that might make your dress dirty."

"I'm sure it will." She responded with a genuine laugh.

"Well, can I help you?" Chloe asked cautiously.

"No, no, I'm fine dude, go back and enjoy the party." The bride replied without looking up, attempting to wave Chloe off.

"Oh, I'm actually the florist, not a guest, so I'm here to help if you need it. It's kinda my thing."

"Um, well-" Beca looked up at her, then she pushed herself up to her feet. "Promise you won't tell anyone?"

"Pinky swear!"

Beca raised an eyebrow twisted her lips at her, as if she was holding back an unnecessary comment for use of the phrase 'Pinky swear', but then continued. "Well, my boyfr- I mean, husband, I guess, told me to go get my ring resized because he said I'm 'so small it will just fall right off.'", she said, putting the last part in air quotes, "He knows calling me that is just like, off limits. So I was mad and stubborn and kind of didn't do it. And now I was was out her, throwing a football with my sister, and it turns out he was right, and now I really don't want to have to go through a whole 'I told you so' thing."

Chloe paused to mull this information over, then spoke. "So your ring…"

"Yes."

"Is in the grass?"

"Unfortunately." Beca breathed out.

Chloe without any further prompting was on her hand and knees, skimming over the small stalks with her hand in the dimming sun. Beca joined her, silently searching the ground right beside her.

After a bit, Beca spoke up while her hands patted down the ground. "They're awesome by the

way."

"What?"

"The flowers."

"Yeah well, it's kind of my thing." Chloe said with a shy grin spreading on her face.

"I though 'helping' people was your thing?"

"Fine I guess I'll just leave then." Chloe dramatically sighed, while hardly making an attempt to get off the ground.

"No! Don't!" Beca replied in almost an honest panic.

"It's Chloe, by the way."

"Beca."

Chloe just laughed in response, and got back into her former position. It felt like a good minute before Beca spoke again.

"I was serious by the way, the flowers are beautiful. You really made Jesse's dumb red roses- blue violets idea work."

"It was nothing. But can I ask why those two flowers?"

"Yeah, Jesse thinks he 'wooed' me with his own version of that stupid poem."

"And that actually worked?" Chloe questioned, surprised that a girl like her could be charmed like that.

"No, actually I just agreed to go out with him so he would stop bugging me." Beca said through a shy smile.

"Oh, I see."

"I guess things work ou-" But Beca was cut off by Chloe excitedly bouncing to her feet.

"Found it!" Chloe rang out

"Oh thank fucking god." Beca breathed out in a sigh or relief pulling herself back up.

Chloe then grabbed Beca's hand, which by contrast made Chloe's hand seem rougher than they actually were, from working at her store, and Beca's even more tiny and delicate, who was wearing a fine teal manicure, something Chloe noticed didn't really fit with the wedding colours. She wiped the ring between her index finger and her thumb, before sliding it carefully onto Beca's finger.

She realized she was still holding onto Beca's hand, and without letting go she brought her head up to see Beca. Beca did the same. Chloe, now closer got a better look into her eyes. The now lilac sky reflected in her navy irises. The twinkle lights danced and sparkled in them. Chloe realizing that she may have been clutching her hand too hard, and looking at her a little too

long, and quickly and harshly dropped Beca's hand.

"Don't you have a party to get back to?"

"I guess so. And I mean, you probably have flower-related things to attend to!" Beca said, tagging a chuckle on the end.

"Probably. It was nice meeting you, Beca." Chloe uttered with genuine intent.

"Likewise." She said with a quiet smirk.

Chloe then watched her turn and slowly, head back towards her wedding reception and new husband. Her shoulders were back and her head was held high. The lights eliminated her figure and the dusk gave her a glow. She hadn't met someone like her before.


End file.
